George Lynch

February 22, 2025 6:31 PM

In my dreams (no pun intended), I play rock guitar like George Lynch.

You could copy his guitars, effects, amps, and licks, but you're not going to play like this.

They don't call him Mr. Scary for nothing.

posted by Lemkin (6 comments total)

The music style's not my jam, but good GOD that quilted maple guitar body is a thing of beauty.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:19 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]

I liked the guy's sound back in the 80s, but when he created his own band and called it Lynch Mob in about '90, I got the ick. I see from Wikipedia that he's still touring with a band of that name.
posted by Ickster at 7:52 PM on February 22

Apparently he changed it and then changed it back due to lack of recognition of the new name? Maybe just go with “George Lynch Band,” man.
posted by atoxyl at 9:31 PM on February 22

But yes, he is very distinctive, though I’m more partial to the likes of Vivian Campbell and Jake E. Lee, as far as underrated 80s shredders.

(I suspect at some point it would have looked silly to call George Lynch “underrated” but it’s cooler these days to say you listen to Dio than to Dokken)
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]

Oh wow, a Metafilter post specifically for me! When I was a teenager learning guitar in the 80s Lynch was my hero. He still might be my favorite soloist. People would complement me on my soloing, but I could only think, don't they realize I'm just ripping off Lynch riffs? There's just something so compelling about his playing, phrasing, tone, whatever, that other shredders just didn't have, in my opinion. I don't know what it is, but the Wings of Pegasus video touches on something I think. It always seemed like he was on the edge of falling apart. Like he wasn't sure what he was going to do was going to work, but screw it, let's just go for it. It was a little messy, not clinically precise like some other shredder type players. Thanks Lemkin.
posted by Billy Rubin at 5:52 PM on February 23

I'm not a shredder, it's not really my thing, but his ability to keep his fingers millimeters from the strings so he can do runs is very impressive. I also really dug that they filmed him and his fingers.

I watch quite a bit of live concerts since I can't make it to many - you can always tell the ones where the camera crew has no idea who the band is - and zooms away from an instrument just as a big part is about to be done, and they film the singer just nodding and standing or the drummer on his regular rhythm while another player is doing something wild off camera. And I'm like - wait! I wanted to see that!
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:53 PM on February 24